Typically, hunting blinds such as elevated deer stands are placed in location in a hunting area and left there throughout the year. This is partly a matter of convenience but largely so that the game will become acclimated to the structure and accept it as part of the scenery. The practice is justified by the presumption that wild creatures are sensitive to any change in their habitat and will react skittishly to the unfamiliar. Human dummies, in hunter's attire, have been placed in hunting blinds during the off-season, in an effort to inure game to the appearance of hunters. More portable and less expensive inflatable "hunters" have also been marketed for this purpose, but the use of either hunter dummies or inflatable hunters is not widely regarded as an effective hunting stratagem.
On the other hand, it is common knowledge that an animal will often approach a motionless hunter without concern, as long as the scent is downwind, but will be startled by any slight movement. This logically indicates that introduction of a motionless blind into the habitat will, by itself, not elicit any particular reaction on the part of the game. Thus, from the perspective of a game animal, it is the movement associated with human occupancy that is identified as the problematic aspect of a hunting blind. It can also be inferred that any motionless device intended to inure game to the visible presence of a hunter is likely to be ineffective for that purpose. This being the case, the above mentioned stand-in hunters clearly do not provide the critical functionality of occasional movement that is needed to effectively inure game to human occupancy of a hunting blind.
Therefore, the first object of the present invention is to provide an improved method and apparatus for equipping a year 'round hunting blind so as to inure game to human occupancy by the production of occasional movement. A second object is to produce this occasional movement in conjunction with a visual indication of human presence, so as to associate the movement with innocuous human occupancy of the blind. Yet other objects are to implement this improved method with apparatus of a form that is inexpensively produced, readily packaged for distribution, and simple to install.